Jehovah's mum tragic act
Adelaide Confidential - Aug 10 6:15 AM
A DYING mother refused a life-saving blood transfusion despite nurses holding up her newborn son in a desperate attempt to get her to change her mind.
Jehovah's mum tragic act
07aug05
A DYING mother refused a life-saving blood transfusion despite nurses holding up her newborn son in a desperate attempt to get her to change her mind.
As they cradled the infant in their arms, a woman doctor appealed to the mother, a Jehovah's Witness: "Take a look at your little baby. This child is more important than your faith."
But 32-year-old Irmgard Christoph shook her head.
Twice she said "No" as her husband at her side nodded in agreement.
Mrs Christoph died of massive blood loss 13 hours after giving birth to a healthy son, leaving him and a three-year-old sister to be brought up by their mother's sister-in-law.
"We all suffered the whole night. It was a drama none of us ever want to experience again," said Dr Bernd Probach, medical director at the hospital near Munich.
Mrs Christoph had brought with her an affidavit signed by a solicitor declaring she did not want a blood transfusion in the event of an emergency.
"Immediately after the birth she began to lose blood dramatically," Dr Probach said.
"Before we operated we asked her if she would change her mind about a transfusion but she refused.
"After we removed her womb and she recovered consciousness, we twice warned her she would die and the child wouldn't have a mother if she didn't accept a transfusion."
Nurses held the baby in front of her while a woman doctor pointed at the healthy little boy and begged her to look at him and put his future before her religious beliefs.
"Her mother was also at the bedside and we begged her to try to influence her daughter," Dr Probach said.
"But she just told us, `If I interfere they will get upset and I won't be allowed to see the grandchildren'."
Dr Probach said an official from the Jehovah's Witnesses was also at the hospital in Landau, west of Munich.
"He refused to intervene and even accused us of trying to pressure the mother to reject her faith," he said.
Horst Lambrecht, a local Jehovah's Witness leader, said: "Blood is holy and signifies the life of other people. If she had been forced to break our biblical laws, she would have upset her relationship with God."
However, a relative of the woman said: "We are disgusted. These people are fanatics. This was murder."
"Surely life – and the welfare of two small children – takes precedence over the selfishness of a religion like this?"
The local public prosecutor said the doctors had acted properly.
"As tragic as it may be, we are not empowered to take legal recourse if the woman, because of her religion, chooses to die," he said.
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